"Tam Lin" is Child Ballad #39, stemming from Oral Tradition, and one of the most popular ballads, both as a song and as a source for literature. It is from southern Scotland; the oldest known version was printed in 1549.

In a nutshell: Headstrong young Janet hears that the mysterious Tam Lin has forbidden all maidens to go to the wood called Carterhaugh (a real place; it's near Selkirk), on pain of... how shall we put this... no longer being maidens. She declares that she will go to Carterhaugh, but she has no sooner picked a rosenote in ballads and stories, picking a rose summons the ruler of the place. See also "Beauty and the Beast". than Tam Lin himself shows up...note in some versions it's consensual, in some versions he rapes her, and in some the deed isn't mentioned at all, just the resulting pregnancy.

Some time later, a knight at Janet's father's court remarks that Janet looks knocked upnote alternatively, it's Janet's father who notices. Janet agrees, but says the baby's father is not any of the men at her father's court. She returns to Carterhaugh and speaks to Tam Lin.

Tam Lin tells Janet that he was once mortal, but was captured by the Queen of the Fairies. The fairy folk must make a sacrifice to Hell every seven years, and Tam Lin fears that he's going to be offered.note There's an oblique reference to this in Sandman. Janet can save him, he explains, if she waits by Miles Cross until midnight on Halloween. That's when the fairy folk will ride by, and Tam Lin will be on a white horse. She must pull him down off his horse and hold on to him throughout his transformations. Janet does this, and the Queen of the Fairies is obliged to let Tam Lin go. Tam Lin and Janet marry.

Joseph Jacobs rewrote the ballad into a prose fairy tale, "Tamlane", published in his 1894 More English Fairy Tales. In "Tamlane", Burd Janet and Tamlane are lovers and engaged to begin with, but Tamlane disappears mysteriously (i.e. is kidnapped by the elves) before the wedding (thus getting rid of the whole knocking-up business).

Tropes featured in the ballad:

All Hallows' Eve: Janet must wait until midnight that night to save Tam Lin on account of it being when the Fair Folk will ride.

Baleful Polymorph: The fairy queen turns Tam Lin into various animals after Janet pulls him off the horse. In some versions, she also says she should have turned him into a tree instead of taking him along on the hunt.

Distressed Dude: Tam Lin is held captive by the elves with magic, and needs Burd Janet to rescue him.

Eye Scream: The Fairy Queen says she should have done this to Tam Lin after Janet rescues him.

And adieu Tam Lin, but had I known the secrets in your mind, I would have picked out your two fine eyes and left you beggar-blind!

The Fair Folk: The main antagonists and the titular character. Tam Lin himself seems to be an adult changeling if anything, having been a human who was taken and turned into a fairy. Lucky for him, he seems to have been afflicted with a curse that can be cured.

Fantasy Contraception: In some versions this is why Janet goes back to Carterhaugh. A "poison rose" is mentioned (although it might just be called that because roses were important earlier in the song).

Good Girls Avoid Abortion: See above. In those versions, Janet, while she does want the baby, isn't about to be an unmarried mother, and tells Tam Lin off for acting horrified when he's in no position to fix that. But, of course, she rescues him, so presumably she ends up keeping the baby.

Plucky Girl: Rather than scream and run from the Fairy who everyone is terrified of, she mouths off to him that she can come and go as she pleases, it being her kingdom and all. Then she faces down the Fairy Queen for him.

Mercedes Lackey's Home from the Sea is strongly based off of this tale. To the point that the main character has to do the shapeshifting hold—with the twist that she also has to shapeshift to keep hold of her love.

In the Dresden Files series' 14th book, Cold Days, it is revealed that Tam Lin once served the Winter Court as Winter Knight, and was one of the few Knights to call the Winter Court to task for their treatment of humans before Harry took up the position. Pretty much every element of the story is compatible with the mechanics of the Dresden Files too.

In An Artificial Night from Seanan Maguire's October Daye series, October gets taken by the Blind Michael, who heads The Wild Hunt. The Luidaeg and Toby's friends retrieve her the way Janet rescued Tam Lin, and the ballad itself is referenced several times.

A chapter in Phil Foglio's XXXenophile has a character do this to rescue her love. It's a bit more explicit naturally, as she has to have in a "lover's clasp" throughout the transformations. Naturally, this series being what it is, you don't have to guess what that entails.

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